Gomi, Sato Announced for VTJ ‘09

By: Tony LoiseleurSep 15, 2009

TOKYO –- Rule changes and the announced participation of Takanori
Gomi and Rumina Sato
highlighted the first press conference Tuesday for the upcoming
Vale Tudo Japan 2009 on Oct. 30 at the JCB Hall. The event will be
promoted by leading Shooto promoter Sustain.

The biggest news from the presser was the various rules especially
crafted for VTJ ‘09, which was held last some ten years ago in
Japan. Though the International Shooto Commission (ISC) will be
on-hand to assist in the form of officials for refereeing and
judging, ISC secretary general Toshiharu Suzuki asserted that VTJ
‘09 will not be considered an official Shooto event. However, there
will be official Shooto bouts on the card alongside VTJ-specific
fights.

Suzuki painted VTJ ‘09 as an opportunity to test out potential
changes to the Shooto system in the near future. Shooto already
took out its knockdown count last year.

“Recently, we’ve been thinking a lot about the rules, and are in
the midst of deciding whether we want to keep the old rules or
adhere more to international MMA,” said Suzuki. “By participating
in VTJ ‘09, we can test out new things. Being a part of it will
allow the commission to look at fights under different rules to
know what we want to add and what we want to subtract from Shooto’s
future.”

Most notable are the introduction of five-round fights and knees
and stomps to the head of grounded opponents, smaller gloves, the
prohibition of long spats, and the absence of predetermined weight
classes.

“We’d also like to experiment how fighters perform under five-round
fights,” said Suzuki, noting a more mainstream round structure
versus the three eight-minute rounds of last decade’s VTJs.

Suzuki said Sustain and the fighters would decide which bouts would
be fought with five rounds.

Likewise, as there are no pre-determined weight classes, Suzuki
indicated that weight limits would be left up to fighters and
Sustain to determine.

Regarding the departure from Shooto’s bulky official gloves to more
mainstream MMA gloves, Suzuki claimed that the new design, if ready
in time to use, would be scrutinized to see whether they would
adversely affect fighter health and safety compared to Shooto’s
current rules.

Inoue noted that while he has not yet seen any recent film on
Nogueira, he is confident that “fighting my own fight will be the
best defense to his guillotine. Knees on the ground will be
allowed, and I’ve been working on them a lot.”

Inoue also accidentally confirmed five-round bouts as a forthcoming
change to Shooto’s rules, despite Suzuki’s earlier comments,
stating, “Next year, title fights will be five rounds, so this’ll
be a good experiment for me.”

While Gomi’s opponent has yet to be decided, Gomi himself suspects
that he will face a non-Japanese fighter, investing in VTJ’s
ongoing theme of “Japan versus the world,” and its function as a
barometer of Japanese fighters in the world scene.

Asked what his plans after VTJ are and whether he’d return to
Sengoku for their New Year’s event, Gomi instead pointed toward his
new hobby of surfing, if not competing abroad.

“On New Year’s, I’ll probably be surfing in Okinawa,” he laughed.
“It’s an honor to receive an offer to fight on a New Year’s show,
and if there’s a challenger, I’d consider it. But year in year out,
[I don’t want to] do the same thing. If I want to look for
challenges, I’d like to look for them overseas.”

Lastly, Rumina Sato,
was tabbed as another participant, but like Gomi, was without a
confirmed opponent. In dropping his last bout to Lion Takeshi in a
desperate bid for Shooto gold, Sato has adopted the ISC outlook in
treating VTJ 09 as a chance to experiment at a lower weight of 137
pounds.

“I grappled at the UFC Fan Expo at around 135 pounds, and I felt
very fresh, fast, and thought that I performed well. I’d like to
fight someone who is the same weight as I am on fight day. I know
it’s not feasible, but I’d like both of us to weigh in right before
we step into the ring. That’d be my idea of ‘fair,’” said Sato.

In the spirit of previous VTJ’s, Sato looked abroad for his
potential opponent.

“I don’t really have anyone in mind, but I’d like to see how I’d do
against the best,” h said. “Probably guys in the WEC interest me
the most because they’re known as the best guys in those weight
classes now.”

“It’s not an impossibility, since we’ve had some [UFC fighters]
come to Shooto before. We’re negotiating now, but of course, it’s
all hush-hush at the moment,” he said.

On the prospect of bringing UFC-level talent to Japan for Gomi in
particular, Sakamoto replied, “I don’t want to rule that out, but
this is quite possibly Gomi’s last fight in Japan. He hasn’t
decided where he wants to go just yet, but we hope to give him a
fight that everyone can remember him by, before he heads overseas.”